Happy Saint Paddy’s day! Across the globe, St Patrick’s day is celebrated to honor the saint who died on that day and is said to have converted all of Ireland to Christianity. The day is perhaps more popular, however, as a celebration of Irish culture and history, honoring the legacy of the people of Ireland throughout history, as well as those descended from the Irish diaspora of the 19^th century, who brought Irish culture across the globe. Despite the popularity of this holiday, however, the average person probably couldn’t tell you that much about Patrick, what he did, or even when he lived. Maybe they would know about some of his stories, like when he used a clover to explain the trinity, or when he drove all the snakes from Ireland. But are these stories real? And, for that matter, just who was this guy named Patrick, and how important was he to Irish history, really? Let’s start with a fact that may come as a surprise to many of you: St Patrick wasn’t even Irish!

Patrick was born sometime between the late 4^th century and the early 5^th, the son of a Roman noble family living in Britain, either in Wales or the west end of England. His real name was the Latin Patricius. Literally translates to “noble” or “patrician.” In Irish his name is spelled Padraig, which is why the holiday is called St Paddy’s day and not St Patty’s. We know little about his upbringing, but at age 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders who had, for generations, been attacking the coast of Britain for generations. Patrick spent 6 years as a slave in Ireland, forced to herd livestock for his new masters. It was during this time that he, according to his own accounts, came to truly look to God for guidance. This would come for him when he was able to escape and return home, after which point, he made it his mission to one day return to the very land that had enslaved him, and bring its people to baptism.

The many stories of Patrick are generally thought to be legendary by modern historians. For example, the tale of Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland is likely not founded in reality, as archaeology has shown that no snakes would have even lived in Ireland at that time. This attribution to Patrick for the lack of snakes in Ireland is only found several centuries after his death. The story of Patrick using a shamrock to describe the nature of God, even if it could certainly have happened, is only believed to have been written down for the first time in the 18^th century. Perhaps the most widespread myth, however, is that Patrick was the first to introduce Christianity to Ireland.

The reality is that Patrick was not the first missionary to Ireland, as a Christian community was already established there. The real first missionary came just before him, and was a man named Palladius. Palladius was, like Patrick, the descendant of nobility, however he was from Roman Gaul, not Britain. Also, like Patrick, we do not know much about him. However, we do learn that he came from Gaul and received a religious education from a young age. He is known to have married and had at least one child, and he would eventually travel to Italy where he would be trained as a clergyman. Eventually, the pope, Celestine I, ordered him to go to Ireland to convert their people, and he soon departed with some followers, including Usaille and Sechnall, saints who would later be thought of as followers of Patrick.

It seems that later medieval writers ended up conflating the two saints, and so many of the stories that are now associated with Patrick may have been the result of a conflation between him and Palladius. The possible reason for this, along with their names being vaguely similar, is that Palladius seems to have been less successful than Patrick, even being banished from Ireland at one point. I can’t help but think that Palladius did the hard work of introducing Christianity in Ireland, and Patrick just managed to top it off after and got the credit, like some sort of Medieval group project! Patrick’s work seems also to have brought about the conclusive and more lasting conversion of the Irish, and so the Irish remembered him. Over the following few centuries, the Irish monastic writers began to focus more and more on Patrick as the “Saint of Ireland” and the role of Palladius was reduced, and eventually forgotten.

I think it is high time we gave credit to Palladius, as well as other lesser-known figures in history. After all, what is more Irish than being set aside in favor of the British? And Palladius is an example of how no single event in history has a just one cause, and the course of human events is never determined by singular great men. We are all agents of history, and we can all have an effect on our future, even if we don’t all get remembered the same way, if at all. So, I say, happy St Paddy’s day, but also happy St Pally’s day! (The name is in the works). Remember the lesser-known figures in not just Irish history, but world history, and think about all the people in the world who have put the work in to make change happen; even if people don’t remember their names, they remember their deeds by being a witness to everything that came to be through their efforts.